GLASGLOW, Scotland | Under a torrential rain, Glasgow was on Saturday the epicenter of a global mobilization which must see tens of thousands of demonstrators across the planet call for action in the face of climate change which threatens humanity.
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From Sydney to Paris via London, Nairobi or Mexico City, more than 200 events are planned, according to the coalition of organizations behind the mobilization.
It is about demanding “climate justice” and immediate measures for communities already affected by climate change, especially in the poorest countries of the South.
“It’s a ” good cause ”,” says Jenny, a 22-year-old apprentice in the administration in Norway, who came to Glasgow where international negotiations are taking place on the fight against climate change caused by gas emissions. greenhouse effect of human activities.
“This is our future and it is my future and that of my children,” she said, deeming “important” that activists in rich countries “fight for” those in poor countries, some of whom “do not have the means to stay that long ”in Scotland.
Scottish police have said they are expecting up to 50,000 people on the city’s streets. The procession set in motion around 12:40 local time not far from the convention center, placed under high security, where the great UN COP26 conference has been held for a week on the climate, considered capital for the future of humanity. .
In Sydney and Melbourne, demonstrators disguised as a pile of coal or as Scott Morrison, the Australian Prime Minister and great defender of the mining industry, denounced the COP26 as being “a comedy” and their head of government as “an absolute disgrace. “.
“Enough of the blah, real climate action now,” a banner proclaimed.
In South Korea, some 500 people marched through the streets of the capital Seoul to demand immediate help from populations already hit hard by the effects of global warming.
A thousand people gathered in London in front of the Bank of England with signs calling for “less talk, more action”.
A demonstration bringing together thousands of young people who came to cry out about the climate emergency had already been organized on Friday in Glasgow.
“It’s no secret that the COP26 is a failure,” said on this occasion the face of the youth climate movement, Sweden’s Greta Thunberg.
She described the COP26 as a “celebration (…) of blah blah” and “festival of greenwashing” after commitments, sometimes with vague outlines, by groups of countries to fight against deforestation, reduce methane emissions in the atmosphere or put a stop to fossil fuels.
Michael Mann, professor at Penn State University, called for more caution on the process of climate talks led by the UN. “COP26 has barely started. The activists who declare her already dead make the executives of fossil energy companies jump for joy, ”said Mr. Mann, who heads the University’s System Science Center, on Twitter.
The challenges of COP26 are numerous in a context of a global pandemic which has weakened poor countries already vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.
Some 200 delegations are studying in particular how to limit, as provided for in the Paris agreement, global warming to well below + 2 ° C, and if possible to + 1.5 ° C.
Every tenth of an additional degree of warming counts and has its share of consequences, heat waves, fires or floods.
However, according to the latest UN estimates, which must be updated with the latest promises, the world is currently heading towards a “catastrophic” warming of + 2.7 ° C.
And according to a scientific study, global emissions of CO2, the main greenhouse gas, rebounded in 2021 to levels close to the records recorded before the COVID-19 pandemic.
In recent days, new commitments have been announced by India, Brazil and Argentina, which could change these forecasts.
The COP26 negotiations, scheduled to last until November 12, will continue on Saturday before a break on Sunday.